Tag Archives: LGBT youth

From the Family Research Council: The Trump administration’s reversal of this mandate on schools is a victory for parents, children, and privacy. The Obama administration resorted to this coercive policy because they knew parents and schools could never be persuaded to force boys and girls to shower together, stay together on school trips, and use the same locker rooms and ...

The New York Times reports: President Trump rescinded protections for transgender students that had allowed them to use bathrooms of their gender identity, overruling his own education secretary and placing his administration firmly in the middle of the culture wars that many Republicans have tried to leave behind. In a joint letter, the top civil rights officials from the Justice ...

Law Newz reports: There is now a draft copy of a document circulating that shows the potential Trump administration reasoning for backing off the Obama policy regarding transgender bathroom use. The Obama administration’s contends that Title IX prohibits the discrimination on the “basis of sex” to include a requirement that facilities provide people access to bathrooms based on the sex ...

The New York Times reports: A fight over a draft order that would rescind protections for transgender students in public schools has erupted inside the Trump administration, pitting Attorney General Jeff Sessions against the secretary of education, Betsy DeVos. Ms. DeVos initially resisted signing off on the order and told President Trump that she was uncomfortable with it, according to ...

Chris Johnson reports at the Washington Blade: Despite pleas from parents of transgender children and LGBT employees, the Trump administration is set Tuesday to rescind Obama-era guidance to schools barring discrimination against transgender students and ensuring they have access to the restroom consistent with their gender identity. Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, told the ...

PBS reports: State legalization of same-sex marriage appears to be linked to a decrease in adolescent suicide, based on a new analysis published today in JAMA Pediatrics. The results give more context to the potential effects of social policy on mental health. The researchers found that suicide attempts by high school students decreased by 7 percent in states after they ...

Ben Winslow reports at the Salt Lake Tribune: A bill introduced in the Utah State Legislature may help get the state out of a lawsuit over a law that forbids discussion of anything construed as “promotion” of homosexuality. Senate Bill 196, sponsored by Senate Majority Whip Stuart Adams, R-Layton, “repeals language prohibiting the advocacy of homosexuality in health instruction.” “It ...

The Toledo Blade reports: The Toledo City Council unanimously approved a ban on conversion therapy today while also making gender identity a protected class in the city. The proposal was lauded earlier in the day during a public hearing by supporters but also criticized by clergymen who asked if they would be prohibited from counseling people who are gay. Conversion ...

Dominic Holden reports at Buzzfeed: The Boy Scouts of America announced Monday that it would allow transgender boys to join the organization, based on their gender identity, shifting away from a policy that determined eligibility based on the sex listed on a child’s birth certificate. “Starting today, we will accept and register youth in the Cub and Boy Scout programs ...

Via email from openly gay Pennsylvania state Rep. Brian Sims: This afternoon I announced with Mayor Kenney and the American Psychiatric Association (APA), legislation banning the practice of conversion therapy on minors, aimed at changing their sexual orientation. In my experience, there is oftentimes a deeply rooted connection to religious fundamentalism that underscores the thought processes of many advocates of ...

UPDATE: Things are now underway. The confirmation hearing for billionaire anti-LGBT Secretary of Education nominee Betsy DeVos is allegedly starting any minute, but it appears the proceedings may be been delayed somewhat by the Chelsea Manning story, which is dominating all networks at this writing. Watch below.

Fox News reports: A woman in Brazil has confessed to stabbing her teenage son to death because she couldn’t tolerate he was gay, local media outlets are reporting. The woman, Tatiana Lozano Pereira, lured her 17-year-old son to the family home after a heated argument on Christmas Eve. Once in the house, Itaberli Lozano was reportedly ambushed by the woman ...

Via press release from Lambda Legal: Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students contact Lambda Legal every day to seek help being safe at school. We need a Secretary of Education who will make schools safe for all students, and who won’t tolerate bullying – by peers, parents, or school administrators. What we know so far about Betsy DeVos’s record concerns ...

Via World Net Daily: The U.S. Supreme Court has been handed a bombshell: An appeal of a lower-court ruling that banned Christian counselors from talking with teens about the biblical standard for sexuality. The case challenges laws that force licensed counselors to affirm homosexuality, prohibiting them from helping clients overcome same-sex attractions. Such laws have been adopted in New Jersey, ...

CBS News reports: The Boy Scouts of America is facing tough questions after banning a child over his gender identity. Joe Maldonado, 8, who was born a girl and now identifies as a boy, was removed from his New Jersey Cub Scout troop. Joe’s family says parents of other children had complained. Joe’s mother, Kristie Maldonado, says the organization already ...

JMG reader Rob tips us to this lovely three-minute clip from Kodak. From the YouTube description: “Director Terry Rayment’s 35mm film “Understanding” poignantly depicts the transformational power of love and happiness. Cinematographer Kate Arizmendi captured all of the emotions beautifully on KODAK VISION3 500T 5219.”

Seeker reports: Gay conversion therapy aims to turn gay, lesbian or transgender individuals into heterosexuals. Patients are predominantly minors or young adults and many are forced or pressured into it. Just this month, the tiny island of Malta became the first European nation to outlaw gay conversion therapy. Evidence increasingly shows that it can cause serious medical and psychological harm, ...

The Associated Press reports: The Pittsburgh City Council has unanimously voted to ban mental health professionals in the city from using on minors a therapy that attempts to change sexual orientation or how people identify their gender. City spokesman Timothy McNulty tells the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that Mayor Bill Peduto plans to sign the legislation. Numerous medical and psychiatric groups oppose ...

The Washington Blade reports: Organizers of a newly launched D.C.-based organization aimed at stopping so-called “conversion therapy” for LGBT minors throughout the country announced on Monday they will work with activists and lawmakers in 45 states to advocate for bills to ban the practice. The organization, called 50 Bills 50 States, will operate as an all-volunteer group. It has already ...

Via press release: Councilman Mark Squilla (1st District) on Thursday introduced a bill to ban the practice of so-called conversion therapy on LGBTQ youth in the City of Philadelphia. Also referred to as “reparative” or “ex-gay” therapy, conversion therapy is any practice by a mental health provider that seeks to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity, including efforts ...